These Boots Were Made For Walkin'

Steven Pardoe  00:00

Literally me and Adam went and booked a hotel, maybe for two weeks up in that patch. walked the streets when have you hundreds of houses met 20, 30 estate agents 20, 30 agents just immersed ourseves in that area and narrowed down the roads that we thought were really good. And then that was it. We flipped to that patch from that point in the West Midlands and still to this day is still been our main area to be honest.

Expat Property-Guy  00:24

You're listening to Expat Property Story, a podcast in which I share my story to smooth the way for you to have your own Expat Property Story. Hello there, and welcome to episode 11. That was Steven Pardoe of Domo Developments. And if ever there's someone with the right mindset to build a property portfolio, then it's Steven, whose story is so full of sound advice for expats, it's worth sticking around for. Last week, we took a break away from my Expat Property Story for a special episode that featured an appeal from Vanessa Warrick of Property Tribes, who has set up a Just Giving page to help rescue pets left behind in Ukraine as refugees escape the conflict there. During my chat with Vanessa, we talked about the importance of having a 'why', a purpose in property, and I explained that the reason my wife and I have started our Expat Property Story is to become financially independent when we return to the UK around 2027, so that, among other things, we can dedicate time to helping refugees. If you go to www.expatpropertystory.com You can listen back to previous episodes to see how our UK buy-to-let story began. But the short version is that, back in 2017, we had a couple of failed purchases, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it allowed us to refine our strategy. Subscribers to the show will recall that we had cashed in as much of our pension as we could without incurring penalties, and had decided to take some of the equity from our original family home back in London, giving us a pot of around £250,000 to invest. While our mortgage broker set about remortgaging our old home, I got stuck into Property Tribes, I came across an old thread outlining an HMO strategy that could potentially offer a gross return on investment of up to 60% after factoring in capital gains. Now, of course, this figure did not include management fees, finance costs, maintenance expenses, or any of the other deductions that all eat into landlords' profits, but such expenses would also affect the profit on a simple buy-to-let purchase too. An HMO, however, had the potential to offer a much higher cash flow and it will take less time to refurbish an existing property than it would for a new build to be completed. I wrote to the writer of the post on Property Tribes and asked him if the strategy would still work in 2018, as his post had been written a few years previously, he replied, saying that in principle, the strategy would still work. Although he pointed out that since 2015, when he had written the post, the government had introduced a 3% stamp duty surcharge for second homeowners. He also highlighted that many local authorities had introduced Article 4 directives to restrict permitted development rights in designated areas. In Article 4 areas, the kinds of alterations owners can ordinarily make to their properties within permitted development rights now require planning permission. In simple terms, in Article 4 areas, alterations, such as ground floor extensions, or adding a loft are no longer possible without applying for planning permission, which is unlikely to be granted anyway. A typical HMO strategy might involve buying a three bed house and extending the ground floor in order to provide enough space to convert one of the reception rooms such as the lounge into another bedroom, while leaving enough space to combine the kitchen and dining room into a co living area. For tenants. This would give you four bedrooms, and if you were to add a loft, you could add a fifth and even sixth bedroom depending on the size of the house. And all of this could be done within permitted development rights, that's to say without the need for planning permission, as long as the local authority had not issued an Article 4 directive in the specific area where the property was situated. So we decided to go down the HMO route and the next step was to choose a tenant type. Should we go for students or professionals? And if we opted for professionals, should we target blue collar or white collar workers and how best to use that pot of cash? If you go to expatpropertystory.com and press the blue follow icon in the top right hand corner of the screen, you can find out what happened next as soon as everyone else does.

Expat Property-Guy  04:48

Today's guest has lots of great advice not just to those of you starting your property stories as expats but to anyone investing in UK property. He started out in sales selling medical instruments before going on to import and sell stones from India, and then kitchen materials from China before the arrival of E commerce companies such as Alibaba. This led him to Dubai around 2009, where he set up a company that owns the rights to three different German brands in kitchenware, furniture and upholstery. Throughout his time in the UAE, he managed to keep a foothold in the UK. And when his kids started approaching secondary school age, he started to think about returning home to Berkshire, and finding a business that didn't require a large workforce and other fixed overheads. His name is Steven Pardoe, and together with his partner, Adam, from his original business, importing stones from India, he decided to explore  opportunities available through property, particularly if it was run as a proper business. And not just a side hustle. They started in 2015, by attending a four-day property training course.

Steven Pardoe  05:56

If you looked at property as a business, not just buying and selling houses as a proper business, it just happens to be the house. It's actually going that way anyway, I could see it the way it was regulated in England, the way the tax was coming in England, the way you really needed to run the business. I thought, You know what, this is actually a really good time for this. And we still had the stone business running at that point in England. So that de risked it a little bit because we could do some stuff in property without losing our income. If that made sense. There was already income from outside of property.

Expat Property-Guy  06:25

After initially looking around Berkshire, one of the trainers on their property course suggested they look further afield.

Steven Pardoe  06:31

He said to us 'Why are y ou looking at Birmingham?' I said, 'What do you mean, it's quite far!' He said 'Yeah but you're on the M4 , the M40 aren't you? It's a straight drive.' And I thought, yeah, actually, it's literally motorway, straight drive. So that night, me and Adam, were looking at the internet looking at Birmingham, and then we ended up going west of Birmingham to the West Midlands. And it just seemed to work on paper, we did loads of research on it, and and literally, me and Adam went and booked a hotel, nearly for two weeks up in that patch, walked the streets went and viewed hundreds of houses met 2o, 30 estate agents, 20, 30 lettings agents and narrowed down the roads that we thought were really good than the ones that maybe were a bit too, dare I say, rough and then that was it. We flipped to that patch from that point. And the West Midlands, still to this day has still been our main area, to be honest.

Expat Property-Guy  07:13

So you were still living in Dubai when you started doing that?

Steven Pardoe  07:17

Yeah, I was still back and forward between the two really. And then Adam was probably one day a week up in the Midlands, West Midlands, initially, Adam used to just pick one day, every week, he went and visited the same estate agents every week with doughnuts and cakes, and just without fail, just trying to build up relationships really,

Expat Property-Guy  07:32

At the same time of day, apparently, right?

Steven Pardoe  07:34

He was turning up with Krispy Kremes every week without fail. And it was just it just consistency. So they knew they would see him every week, they knew that they would get something nice from us. And also, we would in turn get to know them a bit better. And also, estate agents are quite bad at remembering who to give a deal to, even if they know you very well. So if you're in their face consistently every week, it just became a bit of a habit that they knew, 'Right... we'll see Adam Tuesday in the morning.' Just  that consistency can't be beaten really.

Expat Property-Guy  08:00

And they knew they didn't have to have breakfast that morning ha ha!

Steven Pardoe  08:04

Yeah, I mean, also there was there was a lot of estate agents are quite hostile actually at the start. So I think going back weekly, and just showing them that commitment. They want to know that you're committed to their area and committed to them as well. And I don't want to waste their time. So it was just previously that no, we're not wasting your time here. This is your benefit as well. There's still, to this day relationships we use now really, to be fair,

Expat Property-Guy  08:24

Stephen and Adam had already decided to sign up for a longer, more expensive course with the providers of the four day introductory event. But at that time, Stephen was still living in Dubai.

Steven Pardoe  08:36

We didn't start it for maybe maybe a year later because I at that time, what is the plan trips back port forward from device. So I literally flew back every month for that day, for a whole year, around other trips. I made sure I could do that. So we did sign up for that. And then from that point onwards, yeah, then we just sort of pushed it forward really. So you'd go up to their offices, once a month, there'd be 50 to 100 other people that were doing there, you'd have half an hour with sort of a mentor as it were. Plus, you'd have a day of learning and other stuff. And so we actually signed up to that.

Expat Property-Guy  09:08

Criticisms of companies like that... people would say that you don't always get training from the person who's doing the marketing for the training. Is that a fair criticism or not?

Steven Pardoe  09:18

Very true. Yeah, I mean, I think COVID has boomed property training even more and there's probably more unscrupulous people  then there ever have been to be fair, so I'm not a massive fan for personal trainers sitting in front of their Bentley waving, how great they've just bought everything and then they happen to sell you a three grand course in the end. I'm not really... I don't really ...it doesn't rub with me. But I think there is still very good companies that do very good courses. I think they are just unfortunately probably only 25% of the market. So I think everyone's just got to do their due diligence, double check with as many people as they can. Facebook's so powerful now. I mean, you can't really hide... if someone's a poor trainer in the course is poor, It's quite hard to hide nowadays, so... and a lot of these property training companies in the UK will have Facebook groups, have closed groups. Get in those groups and ask the people in there, who's done it and just have a chat with them, really. I'd be more than happy to speak about what we've trained and where we've done and what I liked about it. And I think you've got to take everything with a pinch of salt anyway, because ultimately, every training course I've ever done, the biggest downfall for everyone on that course is they don't take action. It's not that the training was bad. It wasn't any of the information was bad. There's no value. It's just the fact that you're too lazy to do it. And it's as simple as that.

Expat Property-Guy  10:30

I sometimes wonder, though, if the people who succeed in those courses are the people that would have succeeded anyway?

Steven Pardoe  10:39

Possibly, possibly. I mean, I definitely know we changed our patch for that day, I definitely know... we changed a few little tweaks. But you're right, I think we were the mentality that was gonna push forward. And we didn't start our sort of VIP thing or the odd thing for about a year. But by the time we got to that we actually had already bought property, we'd already started it. So you're right. In that sense, we were the right mindset for that. And we wanted to take action and do it. I don't think it's imperative you do it to make your property journey work. Definitely not. I think taking an action and actually being someone that just does it and forward and just push it forward is way more important, necessarily than the training. I don't think you can have one without the other. You're right, we probably would have done it anyway. But I think it just focused our mind on the business side of it and doing it properly, maybe, if that's the right word, although that, again, is something they're lacking massively I feel that they don't really educate people enough in the fact that it is a business. And there's quite a lot of backend stuff that needs to work. If you want to do it properly long term. It's not just buying a button right now and making some money. It's not quite that simple anymore.

Expat Property-Guy  11:41

Do you think that you would be less further along your path if you hadn't done the training? Or do you think it made it go quicker for you?

Steven Pardoe  11:50

I think it probably made it go a bit quicker. I think it spurred us on to get going and get cracking. And then you normally find with these trainings, you outgrow them anyway, that for me, it doesn't have to be a training course that could be that could be a mentor. It could be someone you speak to someone that, like I know, we've had conversations before. And we help people all the time, I'd happily have conversations with people about the journey, getting them involved in stuff and recommended people. And it doesn't have to be about just spending money and sitting in a room in England. It doesn't have to be that. But I definitely think it helps speed it up for us. Definitely. And I think the the part that probably, I would say for us helped the most was with investors.

Expat Property-Guy  12:26

By giving investors a decent return for their money, and without needing to draw an income from their property business. Steven and Adam were able to build a portfolio of nearly £16 million, a figure they expect to rise to £22 million by the end of 2022. But I wonder if he thinks anyone could do what they've done. I've heard you say before, that the majority of people just don't do anything. So do you think that you can nurture someone to be driven? Or do you think it's just you either have or you don't?

Steven Pardoe  12:54

That is a great question. I'm a big believer in attitude. Definitely. Even if we interview anyone for any other company, I would forego skills and knowledge 100% For attitude. So yeah, I'm a big believer of, if your attitude's right, you could teach them anything. Could you teach them the attitude? Probably, if I'm perfectly blunt in my working life, probably not. Actually, I think it's harder, if I'm totally honest, I think there is some people that are maybe in the middle that's just need that push in, and they just don't have the confidence necessarily and those can be nudged. But you're right. I think their initial mindset doesn't need to be a certain train of thought to really push that. I don't think you could just pick anyone off the street, stick them in a training course and give them the attitude to push that. No, I don't think that.

Expat Property-Guy  13:39

It was a bit different for you when you were an expat because you had a business partner was in the UK, and you were travelling back and forth from the UK quite a lot. But what advice would you give an expat who can't get back to the UK as much as you could? When you were living in Dubai? Where could they start?

Steven Pardoe  13:55

Yes, good question. I think initially, I'd probably always advise people before you even start looking at houses, just get everything in order of the business. So how are you going to buy this? Like, are you buying it personally? Are you buying it in a limited company, Are you buying it in an LLP? Let's get that in order first, once you've made a decision on that, right, you probably need to speak to a broker in England, you probably need to speak to an accountant. You just need to figure out right, can I get these mortgages with my set up? Can I get it if I turn it into a limited company? Speak to an accountant about right, I'm domiciled here, what does this impact me in the future? I think that is more important for me than actually getting into buying the house. The house part's quite simple for me, I think the initial part people probably overlook and I think they need to spend a bit of time on that really. And that's a bit more complicated than people think if you're an expat. And also that depends a little bit on: do you have family members in the UK? And there's so many different variables. I mean, we have an accountant who's quite heavy on property but also heavy on expats. He's quite used to multiple countries and so on. So someone like that. Just pay the money. Get a two three hour meeting with them. Explain your situation, explain your goals long term and where you want this property to go, and then he's going to set it up from the start correctly. And also mortgage brokers. The mortgage brokers we use all the time that they have a specialist on expat mortgages they used to dealing with expats they used to the paper trail and what mortgage lenders will deal with or not and what the issues are. Just get that in order and then move on to right. How do we find property?

Expat Property-Guy  15:21

Really good advice there. And as you say, lots of people don't really think about that as much as they should. But I would argue, Stephen that in most expats' heads, that doesn't worry them and you're right, that it should. I think the problem that most expats have is, where are we going to find the properties?

Steven Pardoe  15:37

I think again, you've got to just do your due diligence, there is some very good sourcers in the UK very, very good and there's tonnes of very very bad and that's the same whether I'm based in Hong Kong or based in Berkshire, it's irrelevant. So getting someone that gives you a good comprehensive information on where they buy great and I'd probably stick to sourcers that stick to areas. We buy in three main areas and that's it... we don't complicate it. If it's really good deal comes up somewhere else, yeah, it might be really good deal but actually I don't really know that area I don't understand it. And I think that's the same for sourcers if someone is an expert looking for sourcer are trying to find some that really pinpoints two or three patches is theirs and they know it inside out they really know what a good deal is. They're going to get a good deal they've got tradesmen, they've got lettings agents got everything on hand. And you really need people that are prepared to do that whole thing. I wouldn't be... I wouldn't be just paying a sourcing fee to just get you a property. I would be paying a sourcing fee to someone that views the property, does the video, does the pitch for you does a bit of due diligence, then would take on the property get it let whether it's them or their own company or someone else, has tradesmen in the area, could do the refurb. I would find someone that that the whole thing not just the sourcing. And also on another point I probably the next pack would not pick a property especially at the start that needs quite a hefty refurb. For me, if I'm buying a property for 100 grand, and it needs 45 grand spent on it, I don't think that's a great shout for an expat to be honest. Not until they find their feet and they've got a flow and they've got their trades. I'd be sticking to buy to let, simple five, ten grand refurb, a new kitchen new bathroom, simple stuff. Because the problem is, if you're testing out sourcers, you're testing out areas, it's not wise to test it on 50% of the property's value. So it doesn't make sense to me. I think if you're testing it on 10% of the property value, there's not a lot of risk. If the risk, I think you got to be a bit patient and build it up.

Expat Property-Guy  17:25

If you do want to do bigger refurbs. Steven suggests working with someone who has a proven track record of managing bigger projects

Steven Pardoe  17:32

If I said to you, well, I've got a HMOs deal... it's a two, three bed terraced house, it needs... its hundred grand, but it needs 35 spent on it, which is quite a lot. Can I prove to you that I've done this, bread and butter, and I can actually physically show you the ones I've just done it on? Maybe then I would contemplate it. But there's a lot more to go wrong for an expat. With that there's a lot more delays with that, there's a lot more lending involved with that. There's a lot more potentially, you might bridge it, and then refinance it. But as an expat that takes twice as long so does that work? I think for an expat getting involved, that probably isn't what I'd recommend to start with. I'd stick with the vanilla stuff, the simple stuff, and then move on.

Expat Property-Guy  18:10

I asked Stephen, what he thought about the state of the market at the moment in March 2022.

Steven Pardoe  18:15

I mean, the last couple of years is crazy, really COVID. I mean, I know we spoke about this before, it's it just doesn't really add up to me, I sort of feel like we should have been in a recession we're not. And the flip side, properties are just going through the roof. I think actually prices have just started to come down actually the last three or four months, but the biggest issue is still stock, we speak to our estate agents, most of them would have 40, 50, 60 properties in an average month, they're knocking around 10, 15. So at the minute it, is  basic supply and demand, there is not enough supply, and there's still demand for 40,50 houses. And that's what's pushing the price a little bit. I think we've also got an issue here in the UK with material and building costs. For me it's quite hand in hand like at current prices, if you were to build a new build, unless the new build price goes up in certain areas, it doesn't make sense. So it's sort of correlated at the minute. Like if building materials are going up this high, house prices are going to have to go up with it because you won't get to build houses for what they're worth. Not so much in the south where we are because there's a lot of margin in the houses. But we're talking about areas where we buy houses for 80,90, 100 grand. If the cost has gone up 30 grand for build that, it's making it unattractive. So it's going to have to it's going to have to move with each other for me at the minute. And that's a bit of a stalemate we're at the minute. We're struggling with bigger, bigger jobs with contractors and people pricing, their prices are crazy. I do think it will settle down this year. I don't think prices are going to nosedive but I do think there'll be some economic rebalance at some point. You've seen interest rates go up in the UK recently they're gonna go up two or three times the rest of this year and that naturally slows stuff. Cost of living has gone through the roof here at the minute. That's scaring people so it will naturally just pull back the non professional investors should I say.

Expat Property-Guy  19:57

Despite high prices and low supply Steven and Adam are still pushing forward,

Steven Pardoe  20:02

Ee always say we make our money when we buy it. And because our strategy is hold, long term, if I buy a block for a million pounds this month, and on paper it's worth 900,000 in three months time. So what? I've got positive cash flow, I'm not selling it, we're not over leveraged and I'm holding it forever. So it's irrelevant, really, to me. It's on paper it's not in my bank. If the deal's still right now, currently and it  stacks and it cash flows and it's a good purchase long term, we don't have an issue with that, we expect it to go up and down at some point during the cycle. So I would say we're careful, yeah, it needs to be a bang on right deal. And we will say no to more, but we're not holding out completely. If anything, we're gearing up ready for when there's more of a chance. So it's not a nice thing to say. But if there was an economic crash or a recession, actually, I missed that in 2008. With property I wasn't prepared like I am now. Whereas everyone I know in property, maybe 10, 15 years more than me, I made their whole portfolio in 2009 and 2010. That was it. They made everything in that point. So there's massive opportunities if you're prepared and ready. So I'm not, we're not stopping this year at all, we've committed to five decent sized projects this year that we're still following through with. And that's because they could deals when you buy them. And if they're a good deal when you buy them, they're a good deal. Whatever happens with a cycle, and we're not flipping them, we don't really sell so...

Expat Property-Guy  21:23

You're buy to hold, aren't you? So lots of people say I've never been in a crash. And you know, I'm going to make my money on the other side of it. I'm going to really, you know, pile in, but how do you get ready for that?

Steven Pardoe  21:35

Getting your business in order from a finance point of view. So we're heavy on our accountancy, we're heavy on our accounts, just our structure and our set up. So when it comes to lending during that time, we're an attractive proposition. So that helps because there's always lenders need to lend in those downturns,

Expat Property-Guy  21:49

What makes you attractive to a lender?

Steven Pardoe  21:52

A couple of things really... Experienced for one, your portfolio and the state of your portfolio. So we're not over leveraged, we probably sit at 54, 55% loan to value on our whole portfolio which looks good,

Expat Property-Guy  22:04

wow,

Steven Pardoe  22:05

Our rent roll is good. We've got very few voids, really, and we can prove that we have history of that our yields are quite good. We buy stuff for cash flow, so it's quite good. Our overheads as a business are good. So our profit's good. So I think all of that helps. And then the other part of it is having good people in part of your team. So having a good broker, and having a good solicitor, or having a good accountant can help you in those times. For me, a good broker of mortgages is not someone that just find me a mortgage with a 3% interest rate. They're almost presenting a CV of me and Adam and our company, to the lender to tell them what I should be lending to us, and they're pitching me. And that is a good broker to me. I think those elements are good to get your own in house stuff in order. We we look after people as well, in a sense that we we don't flip between people, I tried to keep our business with the same people in the same lenders and in that naturally gives you a history and and some sort of relationship which does help in those times. The majority of our legal work goes to the same company, the majority of our accountancy goes to them, the majority of our brokerage goes to them. And then the majority of our lenders, probably four or five lenders tops so that when we need to have a conversation actually they'll jump on zoom with us and it's fine. So I think it's all those elements and then having some private funds as well ready to go, having your own money. Having some liquid cash, having investors ready to go as well is always good and people that have got cash ready to move in those times, if you can move quickly, you're going to get good deals.

Expat Property-Guy  23:29

I was looking at your Instagram also. And I saw these great slogans. One said: 'Underestimate us. That'll be fun.' Why will it be fun?

Steven Pardoe  23:39

Ha ha. Oh you've picked on a nasty one there! I don't often... to be honest I don't often put too controversial stuff  to be fair, I've toned down on that but ... well, I think for me, it's always I think anyone that underestimates us is a little bit a little bit silly to be fair, because it almost... I mean me and Adam are people who push forward constantly anyway, like we always want.... we're never that satisfied with where we are and we always want to push forward and I think if someone gives us a little bit more ammunition, that's that's not very wise to be fair... anyway to go do something. If someone if someone teases us into something or thinks we can't do something, it's 100% it's gonna happen ha ha!

Expat Property-Guy  24:21

Another one: gut feelings are guardian angels.

Steven Pardoe  24:25

Yeah, massively. I'm a huge, huge, huge believer in gut feeling. It's served me very well. Whether it's business staff relationships, deals, just something that doesn't feel right. I'm a big believer in that now and my first instinct within five minutes of meeting someone, I do listen to now. I've sort of trained myself to listen to that. Whatever happens after that, I try to remember what I initially thought in that first five minutes.

Expat Property-Guy  24:48

I find that...  how often are you wrong?

Steven Pardoe  24:50

Ha ha NEVER! Ha ha. I would say on people nowadays actually, I'm quite good probably... two times out of 10 I'm still wrong? I still make mistakes, we all do. It's the only way we make less, I suppose it's the only way we learn really. And I do take my time with stuff now as well, I don't rush into a decision. That helps, I think as well. I'm more patient now. So I'll just give it time to just let this settle in and just double check with a few other people just think, hang on, is this where we want to go right now? Let's just have a gut feeling and say no it's not right, fine. Say no.

Expat Property-Guy  25:22

Is there a question that I should have asked you that I didn't?

Steven Pardoe  25:26

Probably the only other thing a lot of expats ask me about is JVing with people, and whether that's smart or not, because there is an option of that you don't always need to go and find a sourcing company do it all yourself, you could find a JV partner in England. And actually, I don't think it's a bad thing for an expat as long as people are putting value in. I don't like a joint venture where it's like an expat just puts the money and they do. And you think they're doing everything else. Or maybe there's not an even split and stuff. Once you've got your traction going, you've got your feet going, I think it's not a bad thing. If you want to scale. I think if you're an expat and you want to scale, you probably would need a partnership. That doesn't have to necessarily be a joint venture, but you might tie up with one company more specifically, or you might pay a company to do more sourcing for you. Or you might find a joint venture, or you might find a building company that you tie up with and they do all your work. But in return, you give them something and I do think that's a that's a good way for expats to scale. You don't need that at the start. It's a bit over the top. But I think if you want to build it up and ramp it up, that that's a good option. And again, I just think my own advice on that is due diligence, on the people, do not get involved in anyone. And again, spend time on an agreement before you set up anything with a person. So if you're going to set up a limited company and your shareholders spend a lot of time and get an accountant and a solicitor to draw up a shareholder's agreement and be very careful about where that leads you. There's a lot more that people don't realise. What if I get divorced, and I own a company with you? And we own 50 properties? Does that mean my wife knows a quarter of my quarter? Which she does. Yeah, so what are we going to do, are we going to sell a quarter of the house? Well no. There's so much more to it. And I think just spend the time on the initial setup of your venture and who's doing what? What roles? What job roles? What value you're both bringing in? Are you comfortable with that? And does it actually work long term?

Expat Property-Guy  27:07

Now as regular listeners will know Expat Property Story is the only property podcast that comes with a free joke. And this week, it's a two for one deal.

Steven Pardoe  27:15

I actually have two jokes is what's the biggest city in the world?

Expat Property-Guy  27:19

I don't know what is the biggest city in the world?

Steven Pardoe  27:21

Dublin because it keeps doubling and Dublin and Dublin

Expat Property-Guy  27:25

Fantastic.

Steven Pardoe  27:26

And then there's one because obviously the property podcast so I thought I would have a very bad Dad joke on property. So that is: how many ants do you need to rent an apartment?

Expat Property-Guy  27:36

I don't know.

Steven Pardoe  27:36

Ten ants... Tenants. That is extremely bad! Jokes are obviously not my forte. So take that with a pinch of salt!

Expat Property-Guy  27:45

Good. You get double points, for property jokes.

Steven Pardoe  27:48

Excellent

Expat Property-Guy  27:49

Monopoly Challenge. This is going to be the last time we ever play Monopoly Challenge. All good things must come to an end. You need 22 to win I think

Steven Pardoe  27:58

22 Wow, okay,

Expat Property-Guy  28:00

Just to remind you of the rules. 30 seconds to name as many squares as you can without repeating and your 30 seconds starts now.

Steven Pardoe  28:08

Passing Go, Jail Chance, Community Service. The car parking one,remember what that's called, Electricity Company, The Water Company. Fenhurch Street Station Liverpool Street Station, Old Kent Road, Pentonville Road Euston Road, Leicester Square, Oxford Street, I think it is... Piccadilly Circus is it? Leicester Square. Mayfair Pall Mall, Oxford Street, Regent Street. There you go... not bad.

Expat Property-Guy  28:41

You're the only person that said Go.

Steven Pardoe  28:43

Yeah.

Expat Property-Guy  28:44

What else did you do? You said  Community Service instead of Community Chest.

Steven Pardoe  28:49

Oh, that's... sorry.

Expat Property-Guy  28:50

Is that a glimpse into your past?

Steven Pardoe  28:52

Definitely not. Ha ha

Expat Property-Guy  28:54

Steven repeated a few of the squares. So his final score is 19 which means he ends up in third place. And because this is the very last Monopoly Challenge, that means that our joint winners are Helen Godbold-Eade from Episode Seven and Ivan from Episode Three. Next week we're replacing Monopoly Challenge with Postcode Challenge. All will be revealed next time. You've given so much great advice today Stephen that's fantastic. Hopefully definitely. If people want to get in touch with you How should they contact you

Steven Pardoe  29:27

Most of mine are StevenPardoeOfficial all one word so Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and DOMA Developments is the company. Yeah you can contact us on there, message me on any of those platforms and like I said I'm always quite happy to have a 15 to 20 minute chat with people, just give them a bit of advice if I can I'll see if there's anything I can help with or put me in touch with someone so yeah for me there's something me and Adam actually quite enjoy. We have a bit more time now we can help other people and just try and get get their their property circles and stuff moving along, the business circles moving along. So yep, I mean if anyone thinks we can help with something if we can. We will. And if we can't we will tell you we can't!

Expat Property-Guy  30:02

Oh, that's great. I really appreciate your time today. Steven, thank you so much.

Steven Pardoe  30:05

No problem.

Expat Property-Guy  30:06

It's great to hear your Expat Property Story.

Steven Pardoe  30:08

Definitely. Thanks for having me.

Expat Property-Guy  30:11

What an amazing Expat Property Story that is. Steven and his business partner, Adam at Domo Developments are well on the way to building a £22 million property portfolio by the end of 2022. And I don't doubt for a minute that they'll achieve that despite how tough the market is at the moment, I'd like to highlight three things that stood out for me from listening to Stephens story. The first one is his relentless determination to continue taking action or to use his words 'keep pushing forwards'. How many people do you know who would book into a hotel for a couple of weeks and walk the streets to understand their patch? The second point worth stressing is the care and patience Steven and Adam took to get everything in order in terms of the business before looking for a property. So that's the power team, tax structure, shareholder agreements for joint ventures, etc, etc. and all the other components necessary for building a property portfolio. They really strike a great balance between getting everything in order before starting their business on the one hand, and moving it forward, on the other The final highlight for me was his willingness to help others. I first came across Steven on another podcast and reached out to him for advice, which he very generously offered with no ulterior motive for himself. So if you feel that you resonate with someone you hear on a podcast, or share their values, perhaps a good place for you to start is to get in touch with them. Property is a pretty friendly place in my experience. Please keep your emails coming in for ideas for future episodes. This show is for you. So don't be shy. Next week's show is a result of just that. A while ago, I received a message from a listener saying how great it would be if I could interview a UK expat in Australia involved in property in both countries. So that's what I did. It's another great story. So tune in next week to find out more. One last reminder to rate review and subscribe or leave a message at www.expatpropertystory.com. And if you can think of someone who might be interested in what Stephen had to say, then share the show to spread the word. You've been listening to Expat Property Story.